Day Trading with Hary Boxer

The stock market indices snapped back after five consecutive days of losses as there was news from overseas. The futures were higher all night. They gapped up and backed off immediately, and after an hour they were at the session highs at just under 2726 Nasdaq 100, and right at 1375 S&P 500. At that point, they pulled back, and for the rest of the session did so in a choppy fashion down. They closed up on the day, but way off the highs.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 89.46 at 12,805.39, about 40 points off the high. The S&P 500 was up 10.12 at 1368.71, 6 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 13.01 at 2708.13, about 18 points off its high.

Technicals were very positive today.

Advance-declines were nearly 4 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and about 2 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 4 1/2 to 1 positive on New York, total volume just under 800 million. Nasdaq traded 1.5 billion shares and had a 4 1/2 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. For the most part, stocks were up on the board today. Leading the way, OptimumBank Holdings Inc. (OPHC) was up 2.07 to 3.43, or 152%, on only 360,000 shares traded today. NewLead Holdings Ltd. (NEWL) jumped 1.97 to 4.47, or 79%, on 2.1 million shares. Sino-Global Shipping America, Ltd. (SINO) advanced 1.33 to 3.98, or 50%. YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) was up 1.53 to 6.14, or 33%.

Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO), on a possible sale of the company, jumped 6.00 even to 27.06, or 28 1/2%, on 5.2 million shares. Princeton National Bancorp Inc. (PNBC) gained 34 cents to 1.84, or 22.7%. Powerwave Technologies Inc. (PWAV) rose 41 cents to 2.26, or 22%, on 2.2 million shares. Mattress Firm Holding Corp. (MFRM), which we traded today, was up 6.57 to 44.00, or 17 1/2%, and Titan Machinery, Inc. (TITN) up 4.58 to 32.05, or 16 2/3%, on 3.4 million shares.

Other gainers of note included Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) up 1.12 to 9.71, or 13%, KiOR, Inc. (KIOR) up 1.25 to 12.11, PulteGroup, Inc. (PHM) 70 cents to 8.39, Standard Microsystems Corp. (SMSC) 2.11 to 26.34, Healthcare Services Group Inc. (HCSG) 1.52 to 21.54, Francesca's Holdings Corporation (FRAN) 2.00 even to 29.89, Owens-Illinois, Inc. (OI) 1.51 to 23.52, Shutterfly, Inc. (SFLY) 1.84 to 28.68, and Tangoe, Inc. (TNGO) 1.16 to 18.21.

In addition, Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. (DNKN) climbed 1.00 to 30.80 today, on 2.2 million. Goldman Sachs (GS) snapped back 1.37 to 115.93. SolarWinds, Inc. (SWI) closed up 1.71 to 37.13, and Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) gained 1.03 to 27.63.

On the downside, there were a few point-plus losers, which included Apple Inc. (AAPL), down 2.24 to 626.20, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) down 2.11 to 99.81.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was down 1.00 even to 22.73.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up sharply at the opening, backed off for about 10 minutes, and then came on strong to reach the session highs in the first 60 minutes. The rest of the day was spent slowly drifting lower in an orderly fashion.

We’ll see if that was just a consolidation and we’ll resume the advance, or whether it cracked to the downside. If that’s the case, we’ll go much lower. We shall see if this is just a 5-day correction, or it’s going to turn for the worse pretty shortly.

Good Trading!

Harry